The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-10
THE STANDARD TIME.
How 1t is Obtained and Distributed
Through the Country.

through the country.
Supt Fleming of the Savannah, Florida
and Western railway, received yesterdy the
speech OF Commander Brown, the origina-
tor of the time ball, which he delivered at
the recent meeting in New York Of the
General Time Convention. Commander
Brown explained the standard time system,
and the method of computing and distrihu-
ting the time, in vogue at the Naval Observ-
atory. He explains the manner in which
standard time is obtained as follows:
In the first place, we have two officers
whose sole duty it is to keep the clock
straight They take observations every
fair night. They compare the siderial
clock with the standard mean time clock at
the time of the observation, and also on
the following morning at 9 o'clock. From
these observations the error of the siderial
clock is obtained: and from this comparison
the error of the mean time clock
is obtained. Whenever there is foul
weather Of course the observations cannot
be taken, and during that time Of three,
four or five days, as the case may be, the
clock is run upon its record. The barometer
has more effect upon the pendulum of the
clock than the temperature has, and when
the barometer rises and falls rapidly, as 1t
sometimes does in our climate, especially in
the winter, we find our clock Immediately
varies. In fair weather the gentlemen who
are charged with this duty take the mean
barometer between two successive observa-
tions, and from that they make a table; so
that in foul weather, by comparing the
barometer and thermometer, they
are able to get pretty close to what the
clock will do in any given state of weather
Only once in the past year has the error
after five days of no observations exceeded
six-tenths Of a second. In the majority of
instances the error after four or five days of
no observations has been as little as two
tenths, or one-quarter, of a second. All Of
our work at the Naval Observatory is done
automatically, and that, it seems to me, is
what you gentlemen want.
Speaking of the manner in which the
time IS distributed, he said: There are two
loops from the Western Union, and two
from the Baltimore and Ohio. Those are
loops from the main lines; so that when we
switch in our clock we cut out all the work
going on the main line. 1t goes down to
the office and IS there transmitted, through
eighty three repeaters, to various parts of
the country. All of this operation is auto
matte 1t is simply a question of switching
in the clock at the proper moment
Those of you who get the time
from the Western Union get the
bebts of the observatory clock on your
saunders. The arrangement is a very
simple one, By it the beats of the clock are
transmitted every second, excepting the
twenty ninth second of the minute, which
is omitted; also the fifty-fifth to the fifty
ninth second. This is all done automatically
In the last minute before noon, at II 80, the
switch is turned, and there Is an interval Of
ten seconds of silence That gives an OPP
portunity for the manipulation of switches,
time-balls and clocks. When the next
signal comes it is the noon beat on our
Il Nl,ak 4
the rest, in that IL lasts one whole second
This time is received in Savannah at the
Western Union telegraph office, and the
manner of receiving it can be seen there
any day at II o'clock when the time ball is
dropped. By this means II o'clock is sent
over the whole United States every day,
and where there is no local time to cause
confusion the clocks and watches can be
regulated with accuracy every twenty-four
hours.
1t has been said that the adoption of
standard time here would confuse the mari
ners, but that is not so. The captains of
vessels and the pilots do not wait to get
into a port to find out what time the tide
rises. If they did they might never get in.
They calculate the ebb and flood from OBJ
servations which they take themselves, and
are altogether Independent of tide tables
and almanacs, but even if
it were not so, the government
has issued nautical almanac
giving the tides for all the Atlantic ports
according to standard time, and all the tide
tables that are now printed, give, in foot
notes, the number of minutes to be added
to or subtracted from the sun time of each
port in order to change the local time to
standard time, and the confusing city time
of Savannah might be abolished and no
mariner or pilot would ever know it, so far
as it would affect his making the tides.